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Dalrymple: Best Books of 2012

People browsed through books at the World Book Fair in New Delhi, Feb. 25.

We asked Delhi-based author and historian William Dalrymple to pick his favorite India-related books of 2012.

For his latest book, William Dalrymple moves away from India. In “The Return of a King,” he looks at four, crucial years in Afghan history: 1839 to 1842.

Those are the dates of the First Anglo-Afghan War, when the British – at the height of their imperial strength – suffered a crushing defeat to unlikely enemies: tribal Afghan fighters. Their occupation of Afghan territory lasted long enough to install their own ruler, Shuja Shah – who is now remembered as a traitor and foreign stooge.

What drew Mr. Dalrymple to this story are the parallels between Afghan history then and now. “You have this extraordinary sensation of history repeating itself, almost identically,” he says.

He considers this an Indian story, the final installment of a trilogy – together with “White Mughals” and “The Last Mughal” – that offers a window on British rule in the region.

We asked Mr. Dalrymple – who is also co-director of the upcoming Jaipur Literature Festival – to pick his favorite India-related books of 2012.

“India: A Sacred Geography,” Diana Eck. In her book, Ms. Eck, a Harvard scholar, takes readers through a journey of India’s pilgrimage sites. “A Sacred Geography is the summation of a lifetime of study, observation and travel,” says Mr. Dalrymple.

“Some readers might feel that her study of India’s sacred geography says too little about the sacred sites and pilgrimages of Indian Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains in its overwhelming concentration on places of Hindu worship, but this book remains a landmark of scholarship and learned empathy,” he adds.

“Behind the Beautifuls Forever,” Katherine Boo. In this compelling work of non-fiction, Ms. Boo tells the story of life, dreams and struggles of the residents of a Mumbai slum, Annawadi. “The irrepressible hopefulness of her characters, shown silhouetted against looming tragedy of their dispossession, has echoes of Steinbeck’s hungry but ever-optimistic migrants in The Grapes of Wrath or to Dickens’s ragpickers in Our Mutual Friend,” says Mr. Dalrymple of the book.

Andrew Cowie/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

“Joseph Anton” in a book shop in London, Sept. 18.

“Joseph Anton,” Salman Rushdie. For Mr. Dalrymple, the autobiography of Mr. Rushdie is a “masterly piece of work.” This 600-plus page autobiography is Mr. Rushdie’s account of his life in hiding, after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death fatwa against him over his book “The Satanic Verses.”

“Joseph Anton” is “his book which comes closest to the warm, witty raconteur you meet socially, and it exemplifies all the qualities which makes Salman one of the great conversationalists of our time,” says Mr. Dalrymple.

“Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure,” Artemis Cooper. Patrick Leigh Fermor – a war hero and dedicated walker – has been hailed as one of the greatest travel writers of all times. In her biography, “Cooper has left the perfect memorial to this remarkable man which is as full of joie-de-vivre as its subject,” says Mr. Dalrymple.

“The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot,” Robert Macfarlane. Another work of nonfiction about walking and traveling – this one by the walker himself. Mr. Macfarlane walked trails ranging from the Camino de Santiago, in Spain, to paths in the Himalayas. Mr. Dalrymple calls Mr. Macfarlane “Leigh Fermor’s true heir,” saying he is “capable of out-writing almost any other prose stylist of his generation.” “The Old Ways,” for Mr. Dalrymple, “is a work of near genius.”

“The Mysterious Mr. Jacob,” John Zubrzycki. This history book, released last month, tells the fascinating story of diamond merchant Alexander Malcolm Jacob. He is “one of the most intriguing characters in early 20th century India,” says Mr. Dalrymple, who praises Mr. Zubrzycki for combining detailed research and fine prose in its narrative.